Evi tops Android Apps of the Week

There’s been a second wave of Siri clones on the rise this week, with the launch of Evi gaining plenty of attention. While Android users seek their own version of the popular iPhone 4S artificial intelligence assistant, Evi, SimSimi and others have continued to gain traction in the Android Market. Lookout Labs unveiled a great app for visualizing mobile security threats, giving you deeper insight to malware behavior over time. Apartments.com also broke out with an Android app this week, joining the top real estate resources in the Market.

Evi’s taken the world by storm with an artificial intelligence app to help you “talk” to the internet. It’s a free search app that looks for matching results and shows you relevant websites, adding a layer of context to your query. The more you ask, the more Evi will learn, providing an increasingly improved set of search results. This Android app is really a decision aid, interfacing between you and your web search with support for natural language for speech recognition. It’s most helpful for things like local search, enabling shoppers and foodies alike. Evi is one of many Siri alternatives to hit the market lately, marking the latest wave of AI tools. Evi won’t help you schedule appointments or send text messages, as Siri does, but it’s a playful novelty for Android users.

From mobile security provider Lookout, the new Mobile Threat Tracker is a fresh way to see mobile threats across time and space. Hailing from Lookout Labs’ experimental minds, the Mobile Threat Tracker graphs malware peaks for various regions across the globe, showing historic data as well. You can see what time of day, week or year a mobile threat is likely to hit, and what regions are the most targeted. It’s all done in an artful way, making for an interactive app to educate consumers on mobile malware behavior. Lookout’s always seeking ways to inform and alert mobile users, and this creative Android app is a timely entrant to the Market.

In the market for a rental instead of buying a home? There’s an Android app for that. Apartments.com has finally delivered its core search technology in the convenience of a mobile app, delivering instant access to thousands of apartment listings in the US. Peruse condos, townhomes and houses for rent, with GPS integration for local finds. Filter your search by price, location, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, amenities and more. You’ll also see photos, floorplans and sometimes video walkthroughs of a listing, saving you time and money in the end. Save the searches you like for later access, and share them with your roomie to keep everyone on the same page.

Some things just go well together, like peanut butter and jelly. Mobile navigation apps and urban settings are perfectly suited for each other, taking the stress out of traveling mass transit systems for you. Embark, previously known as Pandav, is a prime example of how an app can consolidate, deliver and even customize mass transit data on your behalf. The free Android app has provided over 20 million trips for urbanites, boasting 2,000 new users every day. With transit tools for twelve major cities, the most recent being Boston, Embark works above and underground to provide the fastest routes to your destination, alerting you of any delays. You can create an entire trip using Embark, share them with friends (group meet ups or tourists), and interactive maps to help you get to where you’re going.

The latest security app for Android, Comodo provides one-touch virus scans and the option to run a virus scan on demand. You’ll get scans for every file and app you download to your Android device, and a “health check” feature to detect unsafe settings. You can even block annoying text messages by keyword, or set up a private “area” on your phone to keep protected data such as contacts, phone numbers and text messages. Android’s a popular target for malware attacks, and there’s a slew of security apps to choose from. Comodo packs in quite a bit for free.

The task managers to challenge all other task managers, Producteev sets out to combine your to-do list with the tools you need to manage, track and share your tasks. The key to Producteev is its integration with other services, from the expected (Google Calendar) to the specialized (AIM). You can send and discuss tasks over chat, SMS and email, and you can even outsource your tasks directly to TaskRabbit. Producteev is all about the cloud, syncing your tasks and their integrated services across mobile and web platforms, smartphones and desktops. But what makes Producteev really stand out is its ability to help you get it all done.